ThinkKit Catch-Up: Part IV

#ThinkKit is a daily blogging challenge for the month of December hosted by Indy-based marketing firm SmallBox. To learn more about the challenge, do it yourself, or read other participants’ posts, follow along with @thinkkit or visit their webpage.

Writing seemed like a great Sunday night activity. Thus, more ThinkKit catch-up.

Here we go:

15) Handwrite a _______. A tweet. A letter to a friend. Your signature font. What’s it look like? Take a picture of it!

The email with this post came with the title “How’s your cursive?,” which I decided to tackle literally. Somewhere around 8th grade I decided I wanted to change the way I write, and therefore I spent hours practicing a new style of half-print, half-cursive (which looks a lot like my mother’s handwriting) until I had a satisfactory groove down. The girls I sat with every day in my English class were creative and artsy and compared to them, my handwriting looked bad. Terrible. Like a third fifth grader still learning the swing of full-fledge cursive. So, caving to that I-want-to-fit-in mentally that 14-year-old girls have often, I switched it up. Since then I’ve been writing in my new style, but I thought I would be fun to test out how my old-school cursive is doing after being pushed aside. Here we go:

It felt awkward and took me time to remember the way some letters flowed from one to the other. I don’t think I’ll be bringing it out much. I like to think that I’m handwriting something on a regular basis. Some things are just easier that way–to do lists, don’t forget notes, plans for the week. I try to write handwritten notes, though I honestly don’t as much as I should, even though I, you know, design and sell stationery and all.

Side note:It’s funny how the brain connects things, and one memory leads you to a completely different one. During middle school (7th and 8th grade), I was in a gifted English class with a wonderful teacher–someone I still keep in touch with over 10 years later–and therefore I had that class with the same teacher and group of peers for two years. Our teacher, Ms. Sims, fostered creativity–required it, really–and gave us off-beat activities. One involved creating a “personal power source” to hang on the bulletin board that featured a picture of us and the answers to a few questions, which I think about goals. At 14 my magazine passion was at a full-blown obsession and I immediately knew that a magazine was going to be my power source. The requirement specified that our finished assignment had to be in the shape of the power source–a light bulb, a pencil, etc.–not just drawn on a piece of paper. But since I settled on a magazine my paper was still 8.5 x 11. I put “Seventeen”–my fave mag at the time–across the top, my picture, and then my goals like the cover headlines. After they were hung on the board, a guy in my class, Riley, raised a complaint that mine didn’t follow directions. Ms. Sims asked him, “But what’s Sarah’s power source?,” to which he replied “A number?” I don’t know why this popped into my head, neither of them probably even remember that, but it did and it made me laugh.

Now, back on track:

16) What did you discover this year? Was it accidental or on purpose? What did you learn?

I touched on this a bit before, but I learned that I don’t suck at art, and that it’s okay–and fun–to embrace that part of my life I’d tucked away for a while, improving on it with each new project. The more I do it, the more confident I become, and the more that reflects in my work.

17) Share a moment that stands out. Was it moving, or awkward, or infuriating, or ecstatic, or ______? Who was with you? Where were you?

There are things that I already mentioned–the lady swinging by her hair in Louisville, the job interview, etc.–but something smaller that happened involved writing an article about a Noblesville bakery, Urban Pastries, for the Indianapolis Star. The couple that started it are from Israel originally and this was a dream they’d put off for the corporate life and other things that life puts in the way. They’re as nice as could be. After I wrote the article the man emailed me and told me the response had been amazing and thanked me so much for writing the article. A few months later I decided to have my book club meet there and upon that visit learned that the response had continued months later, with people consistently coming in and mentioning my article. They gave me my pastry for free. Those moments of thankfulness and seeing how something I did made an impact to help someone else achieve their dream–well, those are probably the best experiences in the world.

18) Nice someone! Whether it’s a gift, a helping hand, moral support, or just doing something for someone else – write about what you did.

I didn’t do something this day in particular (that I can remember) but here’s something I’ve done recent-ish: Before I introduced the new custom pet stationery line for On a Good Note I wanted to experiment to make sure I could do it and that people had a positive reaction. So I drew my life coach’s dog, Mister, and gave her a set of cards at the end of our group. Then I drew Bandit, the SUPER cute dog I stalk on Instagram who is the fur son of Ashley, a sweetheart fellow Jada Beauty blogger who recently had a SUPER cute baby (seriously, her family can’t get any cuter). I gifted Ashley, as well, with a set of cards and note pad, then gave both of them mugs this month. It was so fun to see their reactions, and I’m so glad they liked them as much as they did.